Boots, Spurs and the Cowboy Church
There is a special place in my heart for cowboy churches. When I was a student in college one of my first photo essays was on a great cowboy church in Waxahachie, Texas. I took on this project for one of my upper level courses at the University of North Texas, which was taught by the great photojournalist Mona Reeder. I spent several months out there and had a great time documenting the church and learning all about the culture. So, when it came time again for this Dallas photographer to shoot another cowboy church, I was ready to go!
Cowboy churches have been taking off all across the state of Texas, so it was only natural that the magazine I shoot for wanted to write an article about them. All of the images you see here are of Triple Cross Cowboy Church in Granbury, Texas.
So, what makes a Cowboy Church a Cowboy Church? Here are a few observations I made:
* A cowboy church is a place where you can come exactly as you are, you don’t have to get dressed up unless you want to.
* When you drive up to church you may be greeted by cowboys on horseback.
* The church is usually a no frills, steel building with a concrete floor and folding chairs.
* You can bring your dog to church.
* There is an arena out back where you can do roping or rodeo activities after the service.
* Baptisms are done in a stock tank.
* Cowboy churches are not just for cowboys. All types of people go to cowboy churches.
One of the lay pastors I was able to work with put it best in saying that their whole goal in creating the cowboy church is to remove all of the possible barriers that could keep someone from going to church. It seems like they have done a pretty good job at accomplishing just that.
For instance, the pastor told me story about a hardworking cowboy. Every morning, including Sundays he had to feed and care for his cattle. This involved early hours and a lot of messy hard work. When Sunday morning rolled around his wife was getting ready for church while he tended to the cattle. Instead of rolling out of bed and getting in the car to church, this cowboy was putting in several early morning hours of hard labor and getting plenty covered in dirt and mud in the process. Eventually he got tired of racing in to get all cleaned up to avoid not being dressed right and getting the carpet dirty at church, and stopped going altogether. With a concrete floor and relaxed attitude/dress code, this is the type of person cowboy churches had in mind.
Just like the cowboy church I covered years ago in college, as a Dallas photographer I had a great time photographing this recent story. The people were wonderful and I even got to go to lunch and share stories with one of the pastors from the church. Enjoy!
